# Sower

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Parables
Date: June 14, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/sower

## Summary

Are you ready to explore what truly shapes your heart? In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus challenges us to reflect: What kind of soil are you? Are you letting distractions choke your faith, or are you cultivating a heart ready to bear fruit? Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

0:00 · And the first time following Jesus actually costs them something. Maybe a friend mocks them.

0:06 · Maybe life gets harder. That at the workplace it's more uncomfortable. All of a sudden social

0:11 · media someone disagrees with you because that's the worst thing in the world, right?

0:15 · And all of a sudden when life pushes back because we say we're going to follow Jesus,

0:21 · all of a sudden the feelings start to fade and they're gone.

0:28 · But hey, if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and turn to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13

0:35 · is where we're going to be laying down our roots this morning. And if you were here last week,

0:40 · we launched this brand new series called Parables. And I was gone. I was out of town

0:45 · and Kyle preached for us. And when I love to give guys preaching opportunities to kind of

0:51 · raise up more preachers and do a good job. But usually when I do that,

0:55 · I want them to preach worse than me so I sound better the following week. So thanks a lot,

1:01 · Kyle. Where'd he go? He was supposed to lower the bar and he heightened it. He did a great

1:05 · job. But he did a phenomenal job. And you can give Kyle a hand for that. That's right.

1:13 · But he did a great job just launching us into this new series, Parables. And we're

1:18 · doing this on the back end of eight weeks going through the miracles of Jesus.

1:22 · And in the miracles of Jesus, we said over and over again, the question that came out

1:27 · of those passages is who is this man? Who is Jesus? What does he about? And we saw

1:33 · throughout this pieces of his authority that ultimately pointed to him as God and our Savior.

1:39 · And as we turn the page to the parables, the question shifts from the identity of Christ

1:45 · and it answers a different question. In this overview, as we see the parables of the

1:50 · Gospels answer the question of what does Jesus teach? This God who came down to earth

1:58 · to be with us, to die on a cross and raise for our sins. We must ask the question of,

2:04 · okay, if Jesus is God, what does he say for us to do and how do we actually follow it?

2:12 · And you see, as you go through the Gospels, we're going to see very clearly

2:16 · that Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived. And his favorite way to teach was the

2:22 · parable. Jesus often taught in stories. Actually, if you go through the Gospels,

2:27 · 35% of everything Jesus says in the Gospels comes to us in the form of a story.

2:34 · He talks about farmers and seeds, lost coins and prodigal sons, wedding feasts and buried

2:39 · treasures. And every story attempts to crack open heavenly truth that brings it down to

2:47 · our earthly domain. And today, as we jump into Matthew chapter 13, starting in verse one,

2:54 · here's how we see that we just plummet into this text. And it says here on that day,

2:59 · Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around

3:06 · him that he got into a boat and he sat down while the whole crowd stood on the shore.

3:13 · Then he told them many things and parables saying, we're going to stop right there and

3:18 · pick that up in just a second. But as we launch into this text, I just want you to picture

3:23 · this scene for a second, that there's this massive crowd that was following Jesus wherever

3:28 · he went. Now, how annoying would that be? Like you can't escape, right? I have four kids,

3:33 · I can't escape them, but I can't imagine a crowd following you wherever you go.

3:38 · Wherever Jesus goes, this crowd is just behind him and he comes out and they're just pushing

3:42 · in, they're pushing in, they're yearning for more. So Jesus steps into a boat,

3:46 · it gets pushed out a few feet into the water. And this is before big old church buildings like

3:53 · this, this is before microphones and AV equipment. This is 2000 years ago. And as Jesus

3:59 · pushes out, because he is God, he's pretty smart, he uses the water as an amplifier for

4:05 · his voice. And as they're sitting on the shoreline, Jesus is using this and speaking

4:10 · like a microphone to the crowd around him, like an amplifier. And in this amphitheater

4:16 · type setting, in the very first story out of his mouth that we see today,

4:21 · is this foundational one that he sets as he says, you must understand if you're going

4:26 · to understand any of the others is about a farmer casting seed. Now, if you look at me,

4:33 · you probably could assert that I don't know much about growing anything. I'm a city boy.

4:41 · When I came to Surprise and I was at Phoenix, Crossroads Phoenix for about

4:45 · eight and a half years, someone said, if you're going to go to Surprise,

4:47 · you need to wear boots. And I said, you'll never see me in boots because if I wore boots,

4:53 · I'd be a fraud. So I wear books instead of boots. Some of you get that, some of you don't.

4:58 · But it's like, I will never wear boots because I'm not a cowboy. I'm not a farmer.

5:03 · I've been watching Yellowstone to catch up. But let me see, as I watch that,

5:06 · I'd be like, I ain't doing that, right? Like I ain't killing someone at a farm and

5:11 · burying them. A different story I think I'm getting from that.

5:16 · But here's what I love about this parable. As we dive in here, Jesus is going to tell

5:20 · this parable twice. First, he tells it to the crowd as his voice reverberates through the water

5:26 · to all those onlookers. But he's going to tell it a second time in the privacy of him and his

5:32 · disciples as he explains it and as he walks them through it. And I love this because

5:37 · sometimes when we read scripture, we feel like we have to guess, we have to read a lot of

5:41 · commentaries, we have to see who said this and what does it mean. But we don't have to

5:46 · too hard what it means when Jesus tells us exactly what it means. But it picks up in our story in the

5:53 · second half of verse three. And I want to read this in full and then take some time breaking

5:58 · it down and going through how this applies for us. But it starts here in the second half.

6:04 · He says, consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the

6:10 · path and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground,

6:16 · where it didn't have much soil and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep. But when the

6:21 · sun came up, it was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed

6:29 · fell among thorns and the thorns came up and they choked it. Still other seed fell on good

6:36 · fruit. Some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.

6:48 · Let's pray over our text this morning. Dear God, I thank you this morning.

6:52 · Lord, I thank you how glorious you are, how great you are, Lord, as we just dive into this

6:58 · parable. And God, we ask of how you cause us to move, what you cause us to do as a result,

7:05 · how the seed falls and what we must do in response. Lord, I just ask that you guide our time,

7:13 · that you guide our hearts. And Lord, that we leave this place changed knowing what we must do.

7:20 · God, thank you for your presence that dwells with us here this morning.

7:24 · And we lift all this up in Jesus name. Amen. We've always called this the parable of the

7:30 · sower. And actually, we call it the parable of the sower because Jesus actually names it

7:35 · the parable of the sower in just a second. But what's funny about this is I think when

7:39 · we apply it to us, it almost, the sower in the story never changes. The sower,

7:46 · the seed that the sower is throwing out, it never changes. The same farmer scatters

7:51 · the same seed across the whole field. The only variable, the only thing that changes

7:57 · in the story is actually the soil. So for our sake, I almost think a better name,

8:02 · if I were to tell Jesus what a better name for the story he tells is, you're shaking your head,

8:07 · you're like, are you going to be a heretical right now? This is like the parable of the

8:11 · soils because he's going to walk through four different soils and how it impacts us and how

8:17 · we respond and how us as the soil are supposed to respond to this text. And in his explanation,

8:25 · Jesus tells us which each of these elements stand for. The sower is the son of man, Jesus

8:30 · himself and anyone who carries out his gospel. The seed is the word of God, the good news of

8:38 · the kingdom and the soil is the human heart. So as we engage in this text, here is the reality

8:47 · that is being taught through here. And the reality of Jesus teaching is I believe that we

8:52 · see five things that come from this text. And the first thing we see is that everyone has an

8:58 · opinion. You see the first thing about this parable that it forces us to admit is that when

9:04 · the seed is scattered, something happens every time. The seed never just like hangs and floats

9:12 · in the air. Like that would define gravity, right? Like that would make no sense. Like the

9:16 · hits the ground in every single setting, in every single way. When it lands somewhere,

9:22 · wherever it lands, the soil responds to it. And I think this is important because that's the

9:28 · picture of Jesus' ministry. He scatters the word everywhere, the way a first century farmer

9:35 · walked his field, flinging seed in every direction. I remember my first house that I

9:45 · bought my first house, I had a lawn, a front and a back lawn. That was a bad idea because I had to

9:51 · mow and overseed both of those. The longer we lived there, what I decided to do is I would

9:57 · only do winter lawn in the front yard and not the backyard because I had to make it look nice

10:02 · on the outside when my backyard really was terrible and dying. But I remember the first

10:07 · time I went to overseed my lawn, I got one of those things you push and you put the seed

10:12 · in and it sprays it on nicely. Yeah, I found out year two that takes too long. So instead,

10:17 · as a farmer does, I took a bag and just threw it, right? That's the way you know you're

10:23 · winning. And now, as I've moved to Surprise, Arizona in North Surprise, my grass is awesome.

10:29 · It is fake. So I don't ever overseed it anymore. Yeah. Hallelujah for that.

10:36 · Every winter it looks fantastic. Every summer it looks fantastic. You can't beat it.

10:40 · But the picture we get here of Jesus is he's spreading seed. And the important thing we

10:47 · need to see is everyone has to do something with it. Nobody walks away from hearing the

10:52 · message of Jesus Christ neutral. Everyone has an opinion about Jesus whether they realize it

10:59 · or not. Look at verse 18 where Jesus begins his explanation. This is in Matthew 13.

11:05 · Skip down to verse 18 when he begins to explain this to his disciples,

11:09 · he says, so listen to the parable of the sower. He's like, listen to the message

11:17 · that I'm giving you. Listen to this story. And I'm going to explain upon it to the

11:22 · disciples. He said, what this means for you. And he starts here is listen because all of

11:27 · you are going to have a response to this. There is no neutral ground when it comes

11:33 · to Jesus. I think about in Arizona and we're going to get a little bit further once we pass

11:40 · this summer that is really just beginning if we're honest. But as we get later in the year

11:45 · and usually as you get into October and you get into election season, I love to just drive

11:49 · around Surprise and see all the bright election signs that are so fun to look at. And you

11:56 · see none of them stay like neutral on everything. Vote for me. Everyone has a

12:02 · position. Everyone aligns red or blue or something else. Like everyone says we believe

12:07 · this. We're standing for this. This school board vote on this prop vote on this. There

12:11 · is no neutrality when it comes to that. And even more so when we talk about our

12:18 · spiritual life. Sometimes we think me and Jesus, we can just be bros and we can

12:22 · just be neutral and don't have to talk that much. But here Jesus establishes that

12:28 · everyone has an opinion. Everyone has to make up their mind on what they believe

12:33 · about Christ. And the four soils are going to represent this four responses to

12:40 · Christ. And here's the sobering reality as we get into this is three of them are

12:45 · negative and one of them is positive, which is not a fun way to start out. But

12:50 · as we dive into this first, the first thing we see and I think the three negative

12:54 · I think are all ways that we can become victims to the world and to the sin around

13:00 · us. And the first response we see is that some people are victims of evil. Keep

13:06 · going. In this passage, when Jesus says in verse 18, listen to the parable of

13:10 · the sewer, he starts hearing, he says, when anyone hears the word about the

13:16 · kingdom, he is talking about the kingdom of God. When anyone hears the

13:20 · kingdom and they don't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what

13:26 · was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. You see, this is

13:33 · the first soil that we see. The first soil is what is referred to as the

13:38 · path, the hard ground. Think of a dirt road packed by years of foot traffic

13:45 · and horses and wagon wheels. The seed hits that surface and it just lies on

13:51 · top. Now, here, if you think back 2,000 years ago, they did not have

13:55 · sidewalks, okay? They had gravel packed dirt in Rome. They didn't quite, they

14:00 · might have had some kind of different areas where maybe you had some brick

14:03 · and stuff, but it was not the same of what we have now. And I have a

14:07 · feeling their construction moved faster than it does in Surprise Arizona.

14:10 · Can I get an amen for that? All right. Like, why are we doing construction

14:14 · on what we just did construction on six months ago? What were we talking

14:17 · about? Anyway, but here's what happens. This hard packed dirt, when the seed

14:22 · hits it, it can't penetrate. It just lays on top of that dirt until some

14:29 · birds come and eat it, snatch it away, and take it off. And you see,

14:33 · Jesus tells us exactly what this means. He says the birds are the evil

14:38 · one, Satan himself. And he says, this is the heart that hears the

14:43 · gospel, and before it can ever take root, the enemy steals it away. Now,

14:49 · we've all seen this soil. Maybe you've even been this soil. It's the person

14:54 · at the funeral who hears the gospel clearly, feels something stir for 90

14:59 · seconds, and by the parking lot, it's gone, and they're back to their

15:02 · old way of life. It's the skeptic who decided before you ever opened

15:07 · your mouth to talk about Jesus that what you're saying is nonsense,

15:11 · and they will not hear it. Commentators call this gospel deafness,

15:16 · where the book closes before it is ever open to hear the good news of

15:21 · Christ, and so do their ears. It kind of reminds me about what

15:27 · happens here in monsoon season, which maybe is going to kick off

15:30 · today. That would be great, right? But here's what's funny. When

15:33 · monsoons happen, we think our desert, like, we desperately want it.

15:37 · We're like, hey, as soon as rain hits that water or hits that dirt,

15:40 · it's just going to soak it all up, right? We think it's just going

15:43 · to go straight there. You know why we have flash floods in the middle

15:46 · of monsoon season? It's because the ground is so hard that when

15:51 · that water hits it, it just keeps rushing on by, and it just

15:55 · floods and floods until it gets into the washes, and then the

15:58 · washes become full of weeds, and then it gets hot, and then

16:00 · there's fires in there later, and it's the cycle of the deserts,

16:03 · right? But it becomes the ground is so hard-packed that even

16:07 · when life in water itself comes to nourish it, it has become so

16:12 · hardened that it cannot take it in. And I think if we're honest,

16:18 · a hard heart is the same way the word pours down, but it just

16:24 · runs right off because it cannot receive it. But notice I call

16:29 · this person, this soil, a victim. And here's the deal is they

16:34 · are in a sense because the evil one, Satan, is real, and he is

16:38 · actively at work to rip the word out of human hearts. There

16:42 · is a thief that roams around us. But don't miss what Jesus says

16:47 · at the front in verse 19. He says, this is the one who

16:50 · hears and doesn't understand it. There's still responsibility

16:56 · there. Satan can only snatch away what was never allowed to

17:01 · sink in. You see some are victims of evil, but some are also,

17:05 · as our next point here, that we see are victims of experience.

17:08 · Check out verse 20 and 21, after we've seen how some,

17:13 · they hear God's word, and they won't respond to it. This

17:16 · next, our victim of evils, check it out, verse 20, it

17:18 · says, and the one sown on rocky grounds, this is the

17:22 · one who hears the word and immediately receives it with

17:26 · joy. This sounds great right now. They're receiving God's

17:29 · word with joy, but verse 21, but he has no roots, and it

17:34 · is short lived. When distress or persecution comes because

17:38 · of the word, immediately he falls away. Some are victims

17:44 · of experience. This is the one that looks promising at

17:49 · first. Rocky ground here doesn't mean that it is

17:53 · covered in stones. It means that there's a thin layer

17:56 · of topsoil sitting on top of a limestone bedrock. That's

18:01 · what was very common at this time in Rome, and this was

18:06 · all over Galilee at this time, and the seed would land,

18:09 · but because the soil was so shallow, it would warm up

18:13 · really fast. It would get water really fast, and all

18:16 · of a sudden, it would sprout up. It was the quickest,

18:20 · greenest growth in the entire field, but the problem

18:24 · was is there was no depth. There was no roots. There's a

18:29 · slab of rock that's underneath, so the moment the

18:32 · sun comes up and it heats, and the heat just hits

18:36 · like we know heat can hit, right? The plant has nothing

18:41 · to draw from. It has no water underneath that it can get

18:44 · to keep going, and it withers as fast as it sprouts.

18:49 · One commentator put it perfectly that this soil is

18:52 · quickly green and quickly gone, and Jesus names exactly

18:59 · what the sun is in the story. It is not heat in

19:03 · general, but he said it is distress or persecution

19:07 · because of the word. Now, what does this mean for us?

19:11 · How do we have a rocky heart that impacts us? Well,

19:16 · I think this is the person whose faith was all

19:19 · experience, all emotion. They responded with real tearful

19:24 · joy at the retreat or at the concert in the high moment

19:28 · at the camp, but it never went below the surface.

19:32 · In the first time, following Jesus actually costs them

19:35 · something. Maybe a friend mocks them. Maybe life gets

19:40 · harder that at the workplace, it's more uncomfortable.

19:43 · All of a sudden, social media, someone disagrees

19:45 · with you because that's the worst thing in the world,

19:47 · right? And all of a sudden, when life pushes back because

19:51 · we say we're going to follow Jesus, all of a sudden,

19:55 · the feelings start to fade and they're gone. It's almost

20:00 · like what we see every January with New Year's

20:02 · resolutions. People make resolutions. I'm going to go

20:05 · to the gym. I told you was my goal this year is

20:08 · like, I don't want to be like those people who start

20:09 · the gym and quit the gym, so I'm not going to start

20:12 · the gym, so I can't quit the gym. But I was like,

20:16 · actually what I'll do is I'll start in February because

20:18 · it'll be cleared out. No one will be there. In February,

20:21 · I actually turned into May when my wife signed us up

20:24 · for a membership. She didn't really ask. She just

20:26 · signed us up. She's like, I'm starting this plan.

20:28 · We're doing it. She's going five days a week.

20:30 · I'm going one and a half-ish in hiking some.

20:36 · But as we're going to the gym, it's like those

20:37 · people. You get super excited about it. The

20:40 · feeling is there, but as soon as it gets hard,

20:43 · it's like, I think I'm going to quit this. I think

20:46 · I'm done. I'm all jazzed up about Jesus in the

20:49 · moment, but as soon as life punches me in the face,

20:53 · I'm going to fall out. I've seen this over the

20:55 · course of 10 years of pastoring. I've seen this

20:57 · all the time, and I'm going to say it's the

20:59 · addict behavior of Christianity, and sometimes

21:02 · all people come to me. They're like, dude,

21:04 · I'm jazzed up for Jesus. I want to do

21:06 · everything. Tell me what can I do at the

21:08 · church tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and

21:11 · Thursday and Friday, and I'll be here every

21:13 · moment I can, and I say, hey, can you come

21:15 · back next Sunday? They're like, yeah, but what

21:17 · can I do Monday through Saturday? I want to

21:19 · do more, and I'm like, just keep coming on

21:21 · Sunday for about a month. And if you can do

21:24 · that, I'll find out what we can do next.

21:28 · And here's what's often happened is they

21:29 · wanted to be all in, but as soon as they

21:31 · couldn't be all in in that moment, they

21:33 · would not commit to making this a lifestyle

21:37 · rather than just an experience that's a high

21:40 · for a little bit, but comes scorching down

21:42 · as soon as life gets hard. And you see,

21:44 · this is why here at Cross Church we talk

21:48 · about we don't want just an experiential

21:50 · Christianity. We don't want just a

21:53 · Christianity that's charismatic on the

21:55 · outside but is not rooted in Scripture

21:57 · on the inside. Every time we gather for

22:00 · a service, here's our goal, and you've

22:02 · probably heard these words, and we're

22:03 · gonna say them more and more as time

22:05 · goes, is we want to take a piece of

22:07 · Scripture. We want to pray through it.

22:08 · We want to praise through it. We want

22:10 · to preach through it so that you can

22:13 · practice it during the week. And here's

22:15 · the difference with that is when we are

22:17 · rooting in Scripture and in God's Word,

22:20 · we are not gonna have this shallow

22:21 · little root that hits the rock that

22:24 · as soon as the sun comes out, the

22:26 · distress, the persecution were ripped

22:29 · right out. We wither away and our

22:30 · Christianity is gone. You see, this is

22:34 · a sobering soil church because it

22:38 · warns us that an emotional response

22:42 · is not the same as a converted heart.

22:45 · Jesus tells us throughout Scripture

22:47 · that those who continue

22:48 · in his Word are truly his disciples.

22:54 · Sprouting fast is easy. Putting down

22:57 · roots is hard.

22:58 · You see, some are victims of evil. Some

23:01 · are victims of experience, but we also

23:03 · see some are victims of excitement.

23:05 · This seems very similar to the last

23:07 · one, but let's break this down a

23:08 · little bit more because it's a

23:11 · continues in verse 22. It says,

23:14 · now the one sown among the thorns,

23:16 · this is the one who hears the Word,

23:19 · but the worries of this age, the

23:22 · deceitfulness of wealth choke the

23:24 · Word and it becomes unfruitful.

23:29 · This in some ways is the most

23:32 · dangerous soil of all and I believe

23:34 · is the most dangerous soil for the

23:36 · church in America today because

23:38 · nothing dramatic happens.

23:40 · No birds swoop down. No scorching

23:43 · sun comes out. The seed actually

23:46 · takes root and it starts to grow.

23:50 · This plant looks like it might

23:52 · make it, but the problem is it's

23:54 · not growing alone.

23:56 · There are thorns that are coming

23:58 · up right alongside it, growing

23:59 · slower, but growing with it.

24:02 · And slowly, quietly, they

24:06 · choke the life out of it.

24:09 · And Jesus identifies the thorns in

24:11 · the story as two things. Number one,

24:12 · he says the worries of this age.

24:15 · Does anyone have worries in this

24:16 · room? Does anyone have worries in

24:19 · this room?

24:21 · There are so many worries we have

24:24 · in this age and this isn't even a

24:27 · new thing. This isn't like all of

24:29 · a sudden we got worries in 2026.

24:31 · Jesus was telling them they had

24:32 · worries in 1 AD. That's probably

24:34 · about 30 AD, but in that time they

24:37 · had worries of this age. But number

24:40 · two, he says it's the deceitfulness

24:41 · of wealth. Oh, that's a whole

24:45 · nother sermon I don't have time

24:46 · for, but we'll get some cliff

24:48 · notes on it. But think about

24:50 · this worry and wealth, the

24:53 · anxious grind of life and the

24:55 · seductive pull of stuff. Now I

24:59 · called this the soil victim of

25:03 · excitement and here's what I mean

25:04 · is this person is genuinely excited

25:06 · about 100 other things. Their

25:09 · calendar is full, their cart is

25:11 · full, they're chasing the

25:12 · promotion, the bigger house, the

25:14 · next vacation, the kids travel

25:16 · ball every weekend and none of

25:17 · that is bad. None of it is

25:19 · necessarily evil, but that's

25:21 · what makes it deceptive because

25:23 · all of it when it comes

25:24 · together, it slowly crowds out

25:27 · Jesus of your life and there's

25:29 · no room left for him to grow.

25:33 · And here's what's scary about

25:34 · this. It's like when you don't

25:37 · watch your front lawn and here's

25:38 · what I've learned is that I

25:39 · moved into our house, our new

25:40 · house about almost two years ago

25:42 · in North Surprise and we did a

25:43 · new build out there and they

25:45 · put all the plants in your

25:46 · front yard and they're all

25:47 · native desert plants and as they

25:49 · grow and get a little messy,

25:50 · you don't even notice because

25:52 · they look like they're

25:53 · supposed to be there in the

25:53 · desert. But then weeds start

25:56 · growing too and I don't really

25:58 · unless you're in right by

26:00 · the plants, you don't even see

26:01 · the little weeds sprouting and

26:03 · then all of a sudden one day

26:04 · you pull into your garage and

26:05 · there's weed this tall and

26:06 · you're like, what happened to

26:07 · that weed? And then you're

26:09 · going to pull it and you

26:10 · realize there's thorns all over

26:11 · it and it hurts your hand and

26:12 · it's killing you and then

26:13 · you realize it's killing the

26:15 · plant that was supposed to be

26:16 · there. And the same happens

26:18 · in our lives. These little

26:19 · weeds sprout out without us

26:21 · noticing. All of a sudden

26:23 · they start crowding the

26:24 · things that are most important

26:26 · and there's a warning here

26:28 · that the thorns do not

26:29 · announce themselves. The

26:31 · thorns don't say, hey, this

26:32 · is going to steal from your

26:33 · relationship from Jesus. This

26:35 · is going to get you sidetracked.

26:36 · This is going to harden and

26:38 · this is going to ruin your

26:40 · path. This is going to destroy

26:41 · the foundation of your family

26:43 · for the generations to come of

26:45 · following Christ. They don't

26:46 · announce themselves like that.

26:47 · They say, hey, this is a good

26:48 · thing. Follow this. And we

26:51 · start busily filling our

26:53 · calendars with stuff that all

26:56 · of a sudden we forsake the

26:57 · most important thing, which is

26:59 · right in front of us. And

27:02 · here's the scariest part

27:03 · about this church is I don't

27:05 · care who you are, is you don't

27:06 · mature past these things. Just

27:09 · this past couple months I have

27:11 · had this struggle in my heart

27:12 · where sometimes I scroll

27:14 · social media and I get annoyed

27:16 · because I see people I know

27:18 · when I grew up with and I'm

27:19 · like, oh, they're going on

27:20 · that vacation. They bought

27:21 · that house. They have that

27:22 · car. I'm smarter than that

27:24 · person. Like I should be

27:25 · making more money than them.

27:26 · I should be doing this. And

27:27 · I'm like, and God has to

27:28 · like stop me in my tracks

27:30 · and be like, dude, why do

27:31 · you care about that stuff? Why

27:32 · care about the worries in

27:33 · this age? Why do you care

27:35 · about the deceitfulness of

27:36 · wealth? It is here today,

27:37 · but it is gone tomorrow. He

27:39 · says focus on the main

27:41 · thing. Focus on the purpose,

27:43 · on the path, on what I have

27:45 · provided for you because

27:47 · what matters more than all

27:48 · of it is the person of

27:49 · Jesus Christ that our

27:50 · world is trying to choke

27:52 · out in these deceitful

27:55 · thorns. They are so hard

27:57 · because they are creeping

27:59 · up in us, trying to crowd

28:01 · out Jesus of our life.

28:04 · So that's three soils,

28:07 · three failures, the heart

28:10 · that is robbed by the

28:11 · evil one, the shallow

28:12 · heart that couldn't

28:13 · survive the heat, the

28:14 · crowded heart that is

28:16 · choked out by worry

28:17 · and wealth. If Jesus

28:18 · stopped here, this would

28:21 · be such a depressing

28:23 · parable, but he doesn't.

28:27 · There is evil. There's

28:29 · there is excitement, but

28:32 · church, here is the good

28:33 · news is that many are

28:35 · beneficiaries of grace.

28:37 · Many are beneficiaries

28:39 · of grace. Keep going as

28:41 · we go through this

28:42 · passage and we see as

28:44 · Jesus ends his commentary

28:47 · on this in verse 23,

28:49 · it says, but the one

28:50 · sown on the good ground,

28:52 · I love that phrase, on

28:54 · the good ground, this

28:56 · is the one who hears

28:57 · and understands the

28:59 · word who does produce

29:01 · fruits and yields some

29:04 · 100, some 60, some 30

29:07 · times what was sown.

29:12 · Here's what this

29:12 · parable has been

29:13 · billing to. He's gone

29:15 · through the bad soil

29:17 · and he leads to the

29:18 · good soil. This is the

29:20 · fourth heart that we

29:21 · are embracing and

29:23 · notice what makes it

29:24 · different is this heart

29:25 · as she describes, it

29:27 · hears and it

29:29 · understands. It doesn't

29:31 · just hear, but it

29:32 · also receives. It

29:34 · takes root. It produces

29:36 · a harvest and not even

29:37 · a small one. It says

29:38 · a hundredfold, 60 fold,

29:40 · 30 fold in the ancient

29:41 · world. A seven fold

29:43 · return was considered

29:44 · a great harvest. So

29:46 · this was like a

29:46 · mind blowing harvest.

29:48 · How much return came

29:49 · from this. He's

29:51 · describing a yield that

29:52 · is off the charts, but

29:55 · it begs the question

29:56 · here and understand

29:57 · what we're saying here

29:59 · and understand the

30:00 · gospel, the gospel,

30:03 · the good news of

30:03 · Jesus Christ, that

30:05 · Jesus lived, that

30:06 · Jesus died, that

30:08 · Jesus paid the price

30:09 · for our sins, that

30:09 · Jesus rose from the

30:11 · grave and Jesus is

30:14 · the ultimate God, the

30:16 · one and only who can

30:17 · change our life now

30:18 · and for all of

30:19 · eternity. When we hear

30:21 · and we receive that

30:23 · truth that scripture

30:25 · proclaims, but as

30:27 · we go in this point,

30:29 · I want us to be

30:30 · careful and there's

30:30 · a little warning here

30:32 · because it would be

30:33 · easy to read this

30:34 · and walk out thinking

30:35 · the whole point of

30:36 · this is be better

30:37 · soil. Try harder.

30:39 · I guess you try to

30:40 · receive it a little

30:41 · bit more, but church

30:42 · soil doesn't make

30:43 · itself good. A path

30:45 · doesn't decide to

30:46 · become farmland. Rocky

30:47 · ground can't dig out

30:48 · its own bedrock. A

30:50 · thorny field can't

30:51 · pull its own weeds.

30:52 · Good soil is cultivated.

30:56 · It is worked. It is

30:59 · graced by God above.

31:03 · You see the good

31:04 · soil heart isn't the

31:05 · heart that was

31:06 · naturally better than

31:06 · the others. It's the

31:08 · heart that grace got

31:09 · ahold of. God

31:11 · softens the hard ground.

31:13 · God breaks up the

31:14 · rock. God clears out

31:16 · the thorns. Ezekiel

31:17 · 36 tells us about

31:19 · this. It says that

31:19 · he takes our heart

31:21 · of stone and he

31:23 · gives us a heart of

31:24 · flesh. You can't

31:26 · manufacture good soil

31:28 · on your own. You

31:29 · receive it when you

31:31 · humble yourself before

31:32 · God. And then a

31:34 · heart that truly has

31:36 · received grace. Here's

31:37 · what it tells us. It

31:38 · will always produce

31:39 · fruit. A fruitless

31:40 · Christian, many

31:41 · commentators say, is

31:42 · an oxymoron. When

31:43 · the word truly takes

31:45 · root, a harvest is

31:47 · guaranteed. In the

31:50 · late 1700s, William

31:52 · Carey, he was a

31:54 · missionary. He left

31:55 · England for India for

31:56 · a missionary journey.

31:58 · And when he was

31:59 · there in India, he

32:00 · labored for seven

32:01 · years before his

32:03 · very first convert

32:04 · to Jesus. Seven

32:06 · years of scattering

32:07 · seed that seemed to

32:08 · land on nothing but

32:10 · hard paths and rocky

32:12 · ground. People told him

32:13 · to quit. People said

32:14 · you are wasting your

32:15 · life. You are wasting

32:16 · your talents. But he

32:18 · kept sowing in his

32:19 · seed. And his motto

32:20 · became this, expect

32:22 · great things from God.

32:24 · Attempt great things

32:25 · from God. He said,

32:28 · expect great things

32:29 · from God. Attempt

32:30 · great things for God.

32:32 · He trusted the

32:32 · Lord of the Harvest

32:33 · would in his time

32:35 · produce the good

32:36 · soil. And he did.

32:37 · And he is one of

32:37 · the most renowned

32:38 · missionaries to this

32:39 · day. You see, that's

32:41 · our encouragement here

32:42 · today. Cross Church

32:43 · that if you're a

32:44 · believer, your job

32:45 · is not to manufacture

32:47 · the harvest. Your

32:48 · job is to keep

32:49 · sowing the seed.

32:51 · Generously, everywhere,

32:52 · even recklessly. Don't

32:54 · use that stupid little

32:54 · thing that you push

32:55 · and it spreads the

32:56 · seed evenly. Just

32:57 · take a handful of

32:58 · seed and chuck it

32:59 · wherever you can get

33:00 · it to. That's what

33:02 · this calls us to do

33:03 · in trust that wherever

33:05 · that seed lands, God

33:07 · knows the soil that

33:08 · it's hitting. Keep

33:10 · praying that the

33:11 · hard-hearted spouse

33:12 · that soil will soften

33:13 · and that seed will

33:14 · seek in. Keep

33:15 · loving the rebellious

33:17 · kid which you know

33:18 · he has rocky soil

33:19 · in his life. And

33:21 · keep hoping that God

33:22 · will till that soil

33:23 · so that it can receive

33:25 · the word. Keep

33:26 · sharing with the

33:27 · apathetic co-worker

33:28 · that is so caught

33:29 · up in the stuff

33:30 · of the world that

33:31 · all of a sudden,

33:31 · God will create this

33:33 · soil in their heart

33:34 · that it changes

33:35 · everything. Church,

33:37 · you sow and God

33:39 · grows. That is the

33:41 · message of Scripture.

33:43 · We just scatter

33:44 · and scatter

33:45 · and scatter.

33:47 · But now how look at how

33:49 · this story ends

33:51 · in the first half of

33:52 · this to the crowd

33:53 · in verse 9.

33:55 · I just love this

33:56 · how Jesus has

33:57 · he's been building

33:58 · this parable

33:59 · and he's saying

34:00 · and he walks through

34:01 · these different soils

34:02 · in verse 9.

34:03 · He says to end

34:04 · this to the crowd.

34:05 · Let anyone who has

34:08 · ears listen.

34:11 · That's not like

34:11 · a throwaway line.

34:13 · Jesus doesn't do

34:14 · throwaway lines.

34:16 · This is a challenge.

34:18 · One paraphrase renders it.

34:20 · Are you listening to this?

34:22 · Are you really listening?

34:25 · And here is where all

34:27 · this builds to us today.

34:29 · The wisdom,

34:29 · the parabolic wisdom

34:31 · we see in this story

34:32 · is today you must

34:34 · decide in your heart

34:38 · what you truly

34:39 · believe about Jesus.

34:41 · Nobody can decide

34:42 · that for you.

34:43 · You must decide

34:44 · what you truly believe

34:46 · about Jesus

34:47 · in your heart

34:49 · not in someone else's.

34:52 · You see it's the same seed

34:53 · the same sower.

34:55 · The only variable

34:56 · in this story

34:57 · is the soil

34:58 · which means the real

34:59 · question this morning

35:00 · is not is the gospel true?

35:03 · The gospel is true.

35:05 · The Bible that we have

35:06 · was written over

35:07 · thousands of years

35:08 · by dozens of authors

35:09 · all pointing to

35:10 · the same message

35:11 · that Jesus is God

35:13 · and Jesus saves

35:14 · the question is not

35:15 · is this true?

35:16 · This is true.

35:18 · The real question

35:19 · that you must answer

35:21 · is what kind of soil are you?

35:24 · What heart will you receive

35:25 · the truth of the gospel in?

35:28 · You have to decide

35:29 · you have to decide

35:30 · in your own heart

35:32 · what you truly believe

35:34 · about Jesus Christ.

35:35 · Nobody can decide it for you

35:37 · and notice every one

35:38 · of these soils

35:39 · heard the same word.

35:41 · Hearing is not the issue

35:42 · although it is

35:43 · for some of us maybe sometimes

35:45 · especially when my wife

35:46 · asked me to do things

35:47 · but hearing isn't the issue

35:49 · here is the true issue

35:50 · within the church

35:51 · receiving God's word is

35:55 · and you can sit

35:56 · in this room

35:57 · in rooms alike it

35:58 · across our country

35:59 · and across our world

36:00 · every single Sunday

36:02 · with ears that work perfectly

36:04 · and you can still

36:05 · let the birds of the air

36:07 · steal the seed away

36:08 · the sun scorch it

36:10 · the storms choke it out

36:12 · you can sit here

36:13 · and not receive it

36:17 · but let me ask you plainly

36:19 · this morning

36:22 · which soil are you?

36:26 · Are you the hard soil

36:29 · that every time you hear

36:31 · the word of God

36:33 · it's just sitting on the surface

36:36 · ready for Satan to snatch it away

36:40 · you're not even

36:41 · making it hard for him

36:42 · you're leaving that seed out there

36:43 · knowing that it's not going to go anywhere

36:47 · are you the rocky ground

36:49 · and there is a moment once

36:52 · maybe you cried at a youth camp

36:54 · maybe you broke down

36:56 · at a men's retreat

36:57 · maybe you even cried in church

37:00 · and God was gripping your heart

37:03 · but you let that experience

37:05 · just be an experience

37:06 · and never take root

37:08 · in the word of God

37:11 · are you the thorns

37:13 · you believe

37:15 · you really do

37:17 · but your schedule is so full of other stuff

37:22 · that you are pushing out

37:25 · you are choking Jesus out of your life

37:28 · or are you the good soil

37:31 · who has received the word of God

37:34 · who it has changed everything in your life

37:39 · and now your role

37:41 · is a pick up a bag of seed

37:43 · and keep throwing it to the world around us

37:49 · you see in this beautiful story

37:53 · we also have a warning

37:56 · and our warning plays out

38:00 · in such a vivid picture

38:02 · in the Old Testament

38:04 · in Exodus chapter 10

38:07 · if you've grown up in church

38:08 · you know the story of Moses

38:10 · standing up to the Pharaoh of Egypt of that day

38:13 · who probably used aliens to build his pyramids

38:16 · but that's a different story right

38:19 · at least demon technology

38:21 · we can agree on that

38:22 · I'm just kidding

38:23 · but as he confronted Pharaoh

38:27 · and he said let my people go

38:29 · Pharaoh had time and time again

38:32 · to respond to the God of the universe

38:38 · but we see for the last time

38:41 · the commentary on his heart comes in Exodus chapter 10 verse 20

38:44 · it says but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart

38:48 · and he did not let the Israelites go

38:53 · now sometimes in the church we read that passage

38:56 · like that's pretty messed up

38:58 · like why did God harden Pharaoh's heart

39:02 · why did he make his soil hard

39:04 · why did he not let him receive the truth of the gospel

39:08 · here's the thing God did not say

39:11 · I am choosing Pharaoh to condemn

39:13 · Pharaoh made his own choice

39:15 · here's what precedes that in Exodus chapter 9 verse 34

39:19 · it says when Pharaoh saw that the rain,

39:21 · hail, and thunder had ceased

39:24 · listen to what this guy did

39:25 · when he's like I might win my battle

39:27 · I might win my war

39:28 · I might still be the victor in this

39:30 · he said he sinned again

39:34 · and he being Pharaoh hardened his heart

39:40 · he and his officials

39:43 · Pharaoh had a chance

39:45 · to recognize the God of the universe

39:49 · let's say I gotta change my ways

39:52 · but he kept on sinning

39:54 · he kept on hardening his heart

39:56 · he kept on pushing down his path

40:00 · and God sent him in his way

40:02 · and said you want a hard heart

40:04 · you got it man keep going down your path

40:08 · and for us today

40:11 · as we examine the soil of our life

40:15 · God will let you go in the direction you choose

40:19 · if you're choosing the hard path

40:22 · you're choosing the rocky

40:23 · you're choosing the thorns

40:26 · God will let you go down there

40:28 · he will let you make your decisions

40:30 · he will let you harden your heart

40:33 · and wreck your life

40:34 · but he does not desire that for you

40:38 · instead when you fall humbly before him

40:42 · when you pray God open up my heart

40:47 · God's gonna break out that tiller

40:48 · and start breaking apart

40:49 · everything that's holding that soil back

40:54 · so that when you hear the gospel truth

40:56 · of what he has

40:57 · when you hear the message of what he's done

40:59 · that everything changes

41:02 · and we get to see exactly what we're gonna witness

41:05 · in just a second in baptism

41:06 · how God changes lives

41:09 · how we can say yes to Christ

41:12 · and our life is different now

41:14 · and for all of eternity

41:17 · church that is great news

41:19 · can I get an amen